Last week a church lady invited me to the annual Thanksgiving dinner held today at her church, here in our little town. A sign was put up in the post office, too, inviting everyone to come eat dinner. I'd be a hypocrite to show up and eat their food but not go to their church (I don't go to any church for that matter) but with a personal invite, I went.

At 11 am all the tables in the fellowship hall were full. Lots of older folks, lots of hugging and cheek kissing. The lady who runs the general store sang a religious song, then Miss Tillie, who did most of the cooking, gave a speech about Thanksgiving prayers, then the preacher said grace. Three black ladies came in and were seated among the sea of white haired white folks.

I don't know about everywhere else in the world, but here in deep south Mississippi, black people have their own churches, their own funeral homes, their own graveyards; and the white folks have theirs. Whites and blacks preach out of the same Bible and believe in the same God, but are separated by custom and culture. It was nice to see that on this beautiful sunny day, under a church roof, we all ate together and sang together.

The church ladies had platters heaped with smoked turkey and baked ham, a tub of cornbread dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, corn, English peas, sweet potato casserole, fresh black-eyed peas with okra cooked on top, and big pots of baby turnip greens, chicken and dumplings, and mounds of rolls and cornbread, iced tea and a table of desserts. (I had chocolate pie.) Miss Tillie made the rounds saying "Eat! I don't want anybody leaving here hungry!" Then came more singing, and the preacher sang one of my favorite songs "An Uncloudy Day" and everyone sang along.

My voice was croaky but drowned out by everyone else, so it didn't matter, and we sang: "Oh they tell me of a home far beyond the sky-Oh they tell me of a home far away (high note) Oh they tell me of a home far beyond the sky, Oh-- they tell me of an uncloudy day." Then we dispersed outside to our cars, under the canopy of a beautiful blue sky and sunshine.

susil